Mariners right fielder Mitch Haniger feels ‘better than ever’ ahead of spring training
Many months have passed since Mariners right fielder Mitch Haniger last played in a big league game.
The former All-Star made an early exit from a meeting with the Astros at T-Mobile Park on June 6, 2019 after fouling a pitch off himself, which eventually led to surgery to repair a ruptured testicle.
Efforts to return to the field later that season were derailed by subsequent back issues. His plans to be back for spring camp last year ended in January, when a setback in his recovery resulted in both core and back surgeries within a three-week span, just ahead of the report date for spring training. He missed the entirety of the shortened 2020 season.
Now, nearly a year after surgery, Haniger feels “better than ever” as he prepares to join the Mariners in Arizona next month for camp.
The recovery process has been long, but he said Thursday on a video call with reporters he believes he’s better for having gone through it, and is now set up for more success on the field.
“That’s kind of how I just choose to look at it,” he said. “I think injuries can derail your career, but at the same time I think you can come back stronger from them if you put in the time and learn your body better, and kind of understand why those things happen.
“I think I’ve had a good handle on things and I’ve been excited to get back out there. The last year has been a long one, but I’m really happy with how things are going now, and just trying to look forward to the future.”
Following his initial injury in 2019, Haniger was expecting to return to Seattle by season’s end, and played in rehab games in both High-A Modesto and Triple-A Tacoma in August, but the lingering back issues eventually shut him down.
He hasn’t played in a game in Seattle’s system since. Though he reported to Peoria back in February after the two surgeries that winter, the Mariners never set a specific timetable for his return.
Haniger said, at that point, he was aiming for a late summer return. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, spring training was shut down, and he returned home to California.
“Once I came back home, every rehab facility that I could go to was closed down for a while, and that kind of pushed things back a little bit further of (when) I was hoping to get back on the field,” he said.
“Heading into the back surgery I was told that having two-in-one, it was going to be a little longer than a typical discectomy. My goal and my surgeon’s timeline was at least six months, so I was hoping to get back in some rehab games by late August, and then make it back for September for the last month and finish strong.”
Haniger said the pandemic stalled his rehab for about a month. He resumed his workouts when facilities were available again, but with a shortened season and no minor league season for the possibility of rehab games, a return in 2020 didn’t seem plausible.
The Mariners have also said throughout Haniger’s recovery process they won’t rush him back to the field, which manager Scott Servais reiterated again this week.
“We will be careful in how we ramp him up,” Servais said.
Though progress was slow in the months following surgery, Haniger said he has felt at 100% since early October and with “more time, more lifting, more strength training, more running — it gets better and better.”
“Even November and then December, I felt completely back to normal and I felt great,” he said.
Mariners assistant hitting coach Jarret DeHart visited Haniger this offseason, general manager Jerry Dipoto said last week, and “spent a little bit of time with him and came away gushing.”
Haniger said he has been swinging again since the first week of November and “felt like it didn’t take long to come back.”
“I think my swing has never felt this good in an offseason before, and I think a lot of that is because I’ve never moved this way before,” Haniger said. “I think I get into better positions than I have been able to in the past and I think my body is moving better than I ever have.”
Despite missing more than 150 games the past two seasons, he doesn’t expect any issues getting back into a rhythm, especially with spring training ahead.
“I think a lot of rust can be eliminated through training hard, and working out in the cage and making your training environment very challenging,” Haniger said. “I think that’s exactly what I’ve done all offseason, and tried to make my work in the cage as realistic as it can be.
“Hitting off the guy throwing batting practice and the machine is not quite like facing a live pitcher, but there’s some things in spring training that I’ll do a little differently this year that I haven’t done in the past that I think will prepare me well.”
